


Remnants

by Ori_Cat



Category: Relic Master Series - Catherine Fisher
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 04:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11661723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ori_Cat/pseuds/Ori_Cat
Summary: Being human - or not.





	Remnants

Theriss hated having to get up in the middle of the night. 

Honestly, she never really liked being awake in the night at all. Humans were diurnal creatures; they were supposed to function during the day. It simply felt wrong, like with the downing of the sun the entire world had shifted to one she wasn’t welcome in anymore. 

You were supposed to grow out of a fear of the dark when you were a child. But you couldn’t really grow out of your instincts. You just pretended, as a human, you didn’t have them. 

However, rolling over and going back to sleep wasn’t really a viable strategy when she really had to pee this much. 

So she slipped out of her nice, warm bed into the cold air and tiptoed to the bathroom. She didn’t really have to worry about waking anybody up, but everything sounded louder at night, too. The door squeaked as she opened it, and her ear instinctively swivelled towards it. It always did that; you’d think that after years in this apartment she’d know. Or she’d stop putting off buying some WD-40 and knocking the pins back in. 

Ah, well. So she was lazy. So were a lot of people. 

She did her business, flushed, made an involuntary face at the noise, and soaped and washed her hands. 

Oh gosh. Had something just moved in the mirror? 

All the fur on her neck stood up. 

It was probably just her own reflection, made dark and creepy by the fact that only a tiny amount of light filtered in through the door. 

She could tell for sure if she turned the light on. It would screw up her sleep a bit, making her brain think it was daytime now, but somehow it felt weirder just walking out of the bathroom and shutting the door without being totally sure. 

So she fumbled for the light switch - why did they have to make them so small? - and squinted her eyes and felt her pupils shrink against the blaze. 

She was too surprised to scream, so it came out as a strangled gasp. 

The face in the mirror had yellow eyes and pointed ears and was covered in reddish fur, and pressed a seven-fingered hand to its mouth to stop the neighbours hearing it. 

It was Sekoi. 

Okay, this had to be a dream. So she squeezed her eyes shut and told herself that, on the count of fourteen, she would wake up. 

The cat-creature opened its eyes when she did. And she watched her form in the mirror reach up and rub its neck, and she felt soft fur part under her fingertips. 

A dream that wasn’t going away, then. 

Who do you call when you think you’re an alien? Who do you call who won’t tell you “Dreams are like that” and will understand why you’re suddenly worried about how much of the little Tongue you learned you can remember? 

Theriss was pretty sure there wasn’t anybody like that. Anybody she hadn’t cut all ties with, that is. 

So she went and curled up in her human bed and hoped it would all be gone in the morning.


End file.
